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10 Landscape Design Projects That Turn

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Pamela
Beautiful Environments Hartford
by Pamela Hartford, 12/03/13 1 articles
filed under: carousel showcase,Features,Landscape Architecture,social design,Urban design

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10 Landscape Design
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The High Line Park in NYC. Photo by Jill Fehrenbacher for Inhabitat
Landscape architects frequently w ork to transform areas that contain industrial and toxic w aste,
infrastructure no longer in use, or land affected by war, natural disaster or disuse. These
neglected places, w hile often having a negative impact on the environment and surrounding
community, are simultaneously part of our cultural heritage. To highlight the significance of these Christmas Tree Farms are
spaces, and the potential that they hold to become something more than a blight, w e’ve Shutting Down Due to
Climate Change
gathered up a series of projects that illuminate how designers use unlikely opportunities to
Karolinska Institute's Green
transform landscapes into spectacular spaces—all w hile preserving their historic and cultural Walled Future Learning
meaning. These 10 case studies show case the creative approaches global city governments, Environment is a Home Away
preservationists, developers and the design community have taken to transform marginalized From Home for Students
places into healthy and meaningful environments for everyone to enjoy. 10 Landscape Design
Projects That Turn Damaged
and Neglected Spaces Into
Healthy, Beautiful popular today all time most commented
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posted?
My favorite is Freshkills Park -
especially after the solar ... 19-Year-Old Develops
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Photo courtesy of the Cultural Landscape Foundation

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Reuse & Reclamation: Abandoned Industrial Site
Where are you located?
Gas Works Park in Seattle, Washington enter your zip code
Designer: Richard Haag

Gas Works Park w as built on the location of a former coal gasification plant in 1965. A central
feature, the boiler house, w as converted into a picnic shelter complete w ith tables and fire grills,
w hile a former exhauster-compressor building w as turned into an open-air play barn that houses a
maze of brightly painted machinery for children. This groundbreaking project has been celebrated
for its ability to garner local support and shift public perceptions of post-industrial landscapes. It is
considered revolutionary for its reclamation of polluted soils using the natural processes of
bioremediation.

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Captured during a 2004 visit to the
war-torn
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Matus Republic of
Duisburg-Nord Industrial Landscape Park ©DZT/Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord GmbH (Mark Congo, Bleasdale's images "tell the
W ohlrab)
story of the
World's country's
First Floating mineral
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For centuries, the
Construction Dutch have
in 2014!
Reuse & Reclamation: Post-Industrial Factory Landscape manipulated the landscape to move
water away fromtheirREAD dwellings.
MORE >
Instead of battling the elements,
Landscape Park Duisburg Nord in Duisburg, Germany Netherlands-based firmWaterstudio
more inhabitat authors >
Designer: Latz + Partners just announced plans to construct
the world's first floating apartment
W orking on a 570-acre site of a former steel plant, Latz + Partners’s goal approached their complex in 2014! The
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reuse and reclamation project w ith optimism. Rather than looking at the site’s disturbed and
complex conditions as nuisances that should be erased or camouflaged, they w orked carefully to Inhabitat
mine them for their creative potential. Like
The transformed site creatively repurposes existing structures, and throw s in number of amenities
that promote recreation and community, including a deep diving pool, a rock climbing w all, 422,825 people like Inhabitat.
picnicking areas, hiking trails, and multiple performance spaces—all w oven together to create
tapestry of memorable places. The aim w as to change the industrial landscape w ith minimal
intervention, recycling and visually renew ing decaying architectural objects into poetic places that
pay homage to the site’s past.
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Photo by Jill Fehrenbacher for Inhabitat

Reuse: Abandoned Transportation Infrastructure

The High Line in New York City
Designer: James Corner Field Operations, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Piet Ouldorf
The High Line is a one mile stretch of abandoned elevated railroad on New York’s W est Side,
w hich w as under threat of demolition. After years of public advocacy, it has been resurrected as a
park that’s become one of the city’s most popular destinations. The park’s attractions include
naturalized plantings that are inspired by the self-seeded landscape that grew on the disused
tracks, unexpected view s of the city and the Hudson River, and cultural attractions that are
thoughtfully integrated into the architecture and plant life. The project cost substantially less that
it w ould have been to w holly demolish and redevelop the area, and further serves as a precedent
for adaptive reuse.

Photo © Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates

Remediation: Brownfield into Greenfield

Alumnae Valley, Wellesley College, Wellesley MA
Designer: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates w orked w ith W ellesley College to revitalize the toxic
brow nfield of Alumnae Valley, an area w hich previously hosted the college’s pow er plant,
industrialized natural gas pumping stations, and a 175-space parking lot. Managing the corrupted
soil involved several strategies: removing the most toxic soil, capping and collecting the mildly
contaminated soil, and then finding a w ay to reuse it as part of the landscape. The site w as
originally shaped by Ice Age glaciers. The mounds along the paths mimic the original sculpting of
the land w hile storing remediated soil. The integration of topography, hydrology, and campus life
brings Alumnae Valley back into harmony w ith its surroundings.

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10 Landscape Design Projects That Turn Damaged and Neglected Spaces Into Healthy, Beautiful Environments | Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building 4/12/2556

As seen in Groundswell, Constructing the Contemporary Landscape, MOMA, 2005

Reclamation: Wetlands from Wasteland

Fresh Kills Park in Staten Island, NY
Designer: James Corner Operations
Fresh Kills Landfill has become a model for landfill reclamation around the w orld, having been
transformed into a vast green space full of w ildlife. The site is large enough to support many
sports and programs that are unusual in the city, including activities and features such as
horseback riding, mountain biking, nature trails, kayaking, and large-scale public art. Demonstrating
the role of w etland buffers in battling rising w aters, Fresh Kills absorbed a critical part of the storm
surge during Hurricane Sandy. W ith the help of advanced landfill gas collection infrastructure
throughout the area, methane is actively harvested from the decomposing w aste, providing
enough gas to heat 22,000 homes. The transformation of w hat w as formerly the w orld’s largest
landfill into a productive and beautiful cultural destination demonstrates how landscape
architecture can restore balance to the land.

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Photo by Kongjian Yu, Cao Yang

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Reclamation: Waterfront Revitalization
The Red Ribbon in Tanghe River Park, Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province,
China
Designer: Beijing Turen Design Institute and Peking University Graduate School of
Landscape Architecture
Much of the original site, located at the edge of a largely inaccessible beach, w as used as a
garbage dump and included deserted slums and irrigation facilities. The goal of the Tanghe River
Park project w as to preserve as much of the natural river corridor as possible, promoting the lush,
diverse, natural vegetation. So, instead of paving over the riverfront w ith hard pavement and
planting ornamental flow er beds, the design uses a “red ribbon” steel structure stretching 500
meters along the riverbank. This feature provides access for jogging, fishing, and sw imming, w ith
minimal impact on the landscape.
The red ribbon snakes along a boardw alk that provides w alking access throughout the park. Many
of the park visitors are former farmers and “new ly urbanized.” The park gives visitors an
environmental connection w ith rural China.

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10 Landscape Design Projects That Turn Damaged and Neglected Spaces Into Healthy, Beautiful Environments | Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building 4/12/2556

Rendering by Mossop + Michaels

Disaster Response: Sustainable Farming

Viet Village Urban Farm in New Orleans, Louisiana
Designer: Mossop + Michaels

Viet Village Urban Farm is an urban farming project located in New Orleans East, an area hard
hit by Hurricane Katrina. Before the devastation of the hurricane, there w ere over 30 acres of
community-farmed land grow ing traditional Vietnamese fruits and vegetables. Mossop +
Michaels‘ new design for a 28-acre farm w ill sit in the middle of a dense urban environment,
continuing the tradition of urban farming that Vietnamese immigrants started there in the 1970s.
The design w ill employ sustainable irrigation techniques that require little or no electricity to pump
and filter w ater used in the fields. And the organic crops produced on site w ill be sold at a new
on-site farmer’s market estimated to accommodate the 3,000 Saturday shoppers w ho had
previously bought foods these community farms before Katrina hit.

Photo by Sam Rosenhotlz © Boston Architectural College

Recharging: Permeable Paving

The Green Alley at Boston Architectural College in Boston, Massachusetts
Designer: Halvorson Design Partnership
Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, built on landfill in the 1890s, features row s of elegant
brow nstones along tree-lined streets w ith public alleys running behind the buildings that provide
service areas for deliveries, trash storage, and parking. The Green Alley, located on the Boston
Architectural Campus (BAC) in Public Alley 444, lies betw een the college’s 951 Boylston Street
building and 320 New bury Street building. It has been redesigned to recharge the groundw ater
by filtering stormw ater from alley surfaces and tw o BAC rooftops through permeable asphalt and
paver systems and substrate. Below ground, geothermal w ells serve the college’s core buildings
and lead BAC tow ards their net-zero campus energy goal. A vertical steel grid rises up tw o sides of
the Boylston building for greenery to help reduce the heat effect in this narrow urban canyon.
As a design school promoting practice-based design, BAC’s commitment to sustainable
approaches in urban design and collaborative processes is fully demonstrated through this
replicable approach to the Boston Back Bay alleys.

Photo by Elizabeth Byers, 2011

Rehabilitation: Public Gardens

The Gardens of Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay
The Garden Conservancy, National Park Service, and National Parks Association
During the military and federal prison periods, staff and prisoners transformed much of the
Alcatraz Island’s landscape into intensively maintained gardens. The gardens served as refuges
from the harsh surroundings, becoming an important part of everyday life for officers, families, and
prisoners confined to the island. W ith the closure of the federal prison in 1963, the gardens w ere
abandoned. After extensive planning, removal of overgrow th, planting, and repair of deteriorated
structures, the gardens are blooming once again for the thousands of that visit the island daily.

Rendering by Stoss Landscape Urbanism

Re-imagining: Memorializing Battlefields

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10 Landscape Design Projects That Turn Damaged and Neglected Spaces Into Healthy, Beautiful Environments | Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building 4/12/2556

Herinneringspar in Westhoek, Flanders, Belgium

Designer: Stoss Landscape Urbanism
Scheduled to open in 2014 on the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of W orld W ar I,
Herinneringspar park is a joint venture betw een the Flemish state government and the Belgian
federal government. The w ar and its aftermath have had significant physical and ecological
impacts on the W esthoek landscape—from the flatlands to the deforested and bombarded fields
to the agricultural farmlands. This project w ill create a regional remembrance park along the front
lines of the w ar, memorializing key battlefields through a series of ephemeral plantings and
atmospheric effects w ithin the agricultural fields. The design pays tribute to the area’s military
past, w hile also acknow ledging the agricultural present and suggesting a resonant future.

+ The Landscape Institute

+ Boston Architectural College

Since earning a BA in architecture, Pamela Hartford has put her design education to use in
editorial projects. Moving to Salem, Massachusetts piqued her interest in landscape history and
preservation, inspiring her to pursue a certificate in Landscape Design History from the Landscape
Institute. In between organizing conferences for historic preservation, she is researching the
work of landscape architect W arren Manning, a disciple of Frederick Law Olmsted, for the
Library of American Landscape History, and unearthing the horticultural history of Salem in
the archives of the Peabody Essex Museum. She is interested in how cultivated (productive)
landscapes have shaped our aesthetic and emotional response to landscape.

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EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS: Inhabitat Visits New York City's Future Freshkills

Park!
Inhabitat recently toured the future site of Freshkills Park, a reclaimed landfill in New York City’s
Staten Island that is currently being capped and repopulated
Lincoln Reimagine Project Helps Launch Green Pocket Park in San
Francisco
Community-driven urban design just scored a big win in San Francisco with a newly announced
public-private investment that will transform an underutilized street into a
How Online Education Strengthens the Learning Experience at Boston
Architectural College Landscape Design
Image: The rooftop of the California Academy of Sciences Building designed by Renzo Piano
Teaching studio-based design courses online has numerous advantages to the student not
available in
Nice Architects Win First Prize for Lush Parkhill Development in Bratislava
The Parkhill location is currently an open-air amphitheater in Bratislava, Slovakia near the city
centre and an urban forest. The development will be located on

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3 Comments

Yuka Yoneda December 3, 2013 at 1:21 pm

My favorite is Freshkills Park – especially after the solar pow er installation is built!

Tafline Laylin December 3, 2013 at 1:20 pm

Amazing! So inspiring. Thanks for sharing.

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10 Landscape Design Projects That Turn Damaged and Neglected Spaces Into Healthy, Beautiful Environments | Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building 4/12/2556

Diane Pham December 3, 2013 at 10:17 am

I absolutely love the High Line. It is by far one of the smartest and most innovative
adaptive reuse projects ever conceived.

© Inhabitat.com 2013 | About Inhabitat | Contact Us | Advertising with Inhabitat | Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Inhabitat, LLC

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